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Daniel Shays
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===Protests against the courts=== Protests in rural Massachusetts turned into [[direct action]] in August 1786 after the state legislature adjourned without considering the many petitions that had been sent to Boston.<ref>Richards, pp. 6β9</ref><ref>Szatmary, p. 38</ref> On August 29, a well-organized force of protestors, Shays among them, marched on [[Northampton, Massachusetts|Northampton]] and successfully prevented the county court from sitting.<ref name=Morse208>Morse, p. 208</ref> The leaders of this and later forces proclaimed that they were seeking relief from the burdensome judicial processes that were depriving the people of their land and possessions. They called themselves ''Regulators'', a reference to the [[Regulator movement]] of [[North Carolina]] that sought to reform corrupt practices in the late 1760s.<ref>Szatmary, p. 56.</ref> On September 2, Governor Bowdoin issued a proclamation denouncing such mob action, but took no military measures in response beyond planning militia response to future actions.<ref name=Morse208/><ref>Szatmary, pp. 79β80</ref> When the court in [[Worcester, Massachusetts|Worcester]] was shut-down by similar action on September 5, the county militia (composed mainly of men sympathetic to the protestors) refused to turn out, much to Bowdoin's amazement.<ref>Szatmary, p. 80</ref> Shays, who had participated in the Northampton action, became involved in the uprising in November; though the precise role that Shays played is unclear and, as scholars have suggested, appears to have been exaggerated by contemporary elites.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zug |first=Charles U. |date=September 1, 2021 |title=Creating a Demagogue: The Political Origins of Daniel Shays's Erroneous Legacy in American Political History |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/716687 |journal=American Political Thought |language=en |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=601β628 |doi=10.1086/716687 |s2cid=243849281 |issn=2161-1580|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Richards |first=Leonard |title=Shays' Rebellion |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2002 |pages=117}}</ref> Historian Leonard Richards observes that "much of the backlash [against Shays and the protestors] was due to the Boston elite. Had they treated Daniel Shays as simply a small-town rebel leader, the aftermath might have been different. But they portrayed him instead as a major villain."<ref name=":0" /> On September 19, the [[Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court|Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts]] indicted eleven leaders of the rebellion as "disorderly, riotous, and seditious persons."<ref name="zinn93">Zinn, p. 93</ref> When the supreme judicial court was next scheduled to meet in [[Springfield, Massachusetts|Springfield]] on September 26, Shays in [[Hampshire County, Massachusetts|Hampshire County]] and [[Luke Day]] in what is now [[Hampden County, Massachusetts|Hampden County]] (but was then part of Hampshire County) organized an attempt to shut it down. They were anticipated by [[William Shepard]], the local militia commander, who began gathering government-supporting militia the Saturday before the court was to sit. By the time the court was ready to open, Shepard had 300 men protecting the Springfield courthouse. Shays and Day were able to recruit a similar number, but chose only to demonstrate, exercising their troops outside Shepard's lines, rather than attempt to seize the building.<ref>Holland, pp. 245β47</ref> The judges first postponed the hearings, and then adjourned on the 28th without hearing any cases. Shepard withdrew his force, which had grown to around 800 men (to the Regulators' 1,200), to the [[Springfield Armory|federal armory]], which was then only rumored to be the target of seizure by the activists.<ref>Holland, p. 247</ref>
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